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The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Cubs Conquer Rockies

Well Jake Arrieta is awesome. So far this season, Jake has picked up where he left off after his award winning 2015 breakout year. Yesterday, Arrieta pitched eight goose egged innings and extends his Wrigley Field dominance going back to last July.

I’m a big fan of complete games. The ability to go through nine innings of solid baseball is a true testament to the power and sometimes legendary status given to starting pitchers. Jake wanted to continue yesterday but I understand Maddon’s decision to yank him in the eighth.

“Of course he could have gone out there and possibly or probably thrown a shutout today,” Joe Maddon said. “But big picture, you as a manager have to look out for the team and him and his career and his family, too.”

The Cubs have to be very cautious this season on how they handle their pitching staff. If they want to make it through October, I’m predicting we’re not going to be seeing too many complete games in 2016.

“This game will humble you, and it can do it in a heartbeat,” Arrieta said. “I think remaining humble and working hard regardless of your success or failure is the way to approach it. … That’s why I try to work the way I do between starts, to prepare so when I take the mound, that’s the fun part.”

The Cubs defeated the Rockies 6-2 and really showed their dominance. We know that Anthony Rizzo can hit the bombers really well and yesterday was no exception. Rizzo launched his third home run of the early season, but it’s his leadership that catapults the rest of the team into action. Joining Rizzo in the home run category was Jorge Soler and Dexter Fowler.

Fowler launched a three run homer while Soler propelled a rocket of 442ft. There’s not too many times when a team will lose after they’ve hit three homers in a game. So far this season, the Cubs are second with 71 runs just behind the St Louis Cardinals who have 81.

Another guy who impressed me a lot yesterday was Javier Baez. It seemed like he was hungry enough to make the team. Although he won’t get much playing time behind Ben Zobrist, he made the most of it with a two hit game. part of me thinks that he’ll be gone during the offseason, but while he’s here, he’ll be contributing to the amazing depth of the Cubs.

“He’s got a high-maintenance swing and he’s young, so he needs to continue to get at-bats,” Maddon said. “That’s the difficult part about all of this … to nurture him along right now along with a team that has a chance to do something really special this year.”

By being a Chicago Cub, Javier Baez is all ready part of special things indeed.